


Quiet

by Aryashi



Series: Rvb Fic Wars [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Post Season 5, Pre-Season 6, RvB Angst War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 16:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6573469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aryashi/pseuds/Aryashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blue Base was very different after Tex's ship exploded, and saying good-bye is the hardest thing. Especially to your Best Friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: @100wordsummaries Okay! Angst War time! Caboose trying to say goodbye to Church and Tucker when they’re all given their relocation orders.

Blue Base had been very quiet. Caboose did not like that. Caboose liked noises; Church practicing missing cans and swearing, Sheila rolling around and saying nice things, even stupid Tucker making bad jokes and not explaining where babies come from was a good noise. Noise from the kitchen in the morning, noise from the TV late at night, sometimes noise from gunshots and screaming could be good, if it had been boring for a long while.

Now the only noise was the canyon whistling sometimes. Even the Reds didn’t make noise anymore.

“Siiiigh,” Caboose said. “I miss Sheila.”

“I know Caboose. You told me,” Church said. The quiet came back, even more than before. It reminded Caboose that Church was missing someone too. Caboose shifted on his legs, wished he could curl his toes in the dirt and spikey grass outside of Blue Base.

They watched for Reds in the shade now. Caboose liked that Church had listened to his smart idea, but Church was still sad. Church was allergic to hugs so that wasn’t an option, but Caboose didn’t know what else to do. Maybe someone else could help? Doc had left the day before, flown away to another assignment so he couldn’t help. Sister was confusing and Church didn’t seem to like her much, so she couldn’t help.  Stupid Tucker was dumb, but sometimes he made Church happy and Caboose could handle the envy if he helped Church stop being so sad.

“Hey Church?” Caboose said, “Where is Tucker?”

“Don’t know. Inside, maybe?” Church glanced over for the first time since watch had started. “Why do you care?”

“No reason. Nothing to do with you being sad.” Caboose shook his head violently. “Because I am your best friend, what kind of best friend couldn’t help their best friend when they feel sad?! Not a good one! So not me! I am going inside for a totally different reason.” Caboose spun on his heel and went inside Blue Base.

“… Whatever.”  Church turned back to staring at the empty canyon.

The quiet had gotten inside of Blue Base too. Caboose hated it worse than the outside quiet. Outside quiet had wind and crunching dirt and other at least okay noises. Inside quiet was all buzzy and humming and armor clanking on hard floor.

“Tucker? Are you there?” Caboose called out. Tucker wasn’t in the bunks, or the bathroom, so maybe he was in the kitchen. Caboose started looking around when Tucker walked in.

“Caboose, why are you yelling into the cabinet?”

Caboose looked up and saw Tucker standing in the doorway with a duffel bag in his hand. A _full_ duffel bag. Why did Tucker have a full duffel bag?

“I was looking for you, and I found you, so I did a good job.” Caboose said, getting off of the step ladder. The cabinet was a small one behind the fridge, but Tucker was weird and could probably fit into weird spaces. “Why do you have that bag? Are you going camping?”

“Oh my god am I seriously the only one that checks their email? Letter from ‘Blue Command’,” Tucker said, making little two finger hooks in the air with his hands, “We’re being shipped out. Pick up gets here in like, an hour.”

Caboose blinked. “Oh! That’s good! A nice change of scenery. Do you know where we are going?”

Tucker shrugged. “I know where I’m going. Check your orders.”

Caboose blinked again, slower this time. “I… do not understand.”

Tucker looked annoyed for a second, but then his helmet cocked to the side. Tucker did that when he was looking really hard at something. Tucker sighed.

“Sorry dude, we’re all going to different places.”

Caboose breathed in, and that was it. The quiet got inside him. It lodged in his gut, stuck in his throat, flowed into his brain and gummed up everything.

“Oh,” Caboose said. He could not say _“I don’t want to,”_ or “ _We can’t help each other if we’re all apart, we don’t have cellphones,”_ or _“Tucker I hate you but Church is hurt so go help,”_ or _“Tucker please don’t leave that’s too many leaving at once,”_ or even ask “ _Why?_ ”.

Because the quiet had gotten inside and it stayed  there until Caboose left Blue Base.

—

Caboose held his duffel strap as tight as he could. The strap gave in too much and his gloves hid the pressure from his fingers. Caboose hated the gloves right then. He hated the strap too. The hate was small and vicious and it bit whatever Caboose thought about, because if he tried to hate everything at once he might explode. His mom told him that when he was little.

The quiet still sat in his throat while he waited; maybe in Church’s and Tucker’s throats too, because they didn’t talk either. All Caboose could do was look at the sky and watch for the ships that would take him team away.

Caboose spotted the black speck first. He didn’t point it out. Maybe it was just a really big bird, and if he didn’t say anything it would stay a big bird and not a ship. Ships split people up, bombed them, crushed them, exploded them, ships were awful and never did one good thing for Caboose in his whole life.

… Except drop him off in Blood Gulch. That was a good thing. Caboose couldn’t hate ships for that.

The black dot got bigger. Too big and too solid to be a bird anymore. It was a ship, for sure. Would it pick them all up and then drop them off one by one? That might not be so bad. Caboose liked riding in ships, even though he hated the ship itself. They could play road-trip games and eat snacks on the way, talk about things because once they all left Blood Gulch the quiet would get left behind too.

The ship landed, throwing a lot of wind around and settling into an idle gear. The engine was still running when a person in Blue armor jumped out with a datapad.

“Private Lavernius Tucker?”

“Yo,” Tucker said. He still saluted through, and didn’t put his hand down until the salute was returned. Tucker did confusing things like that a lot.

“Excellent. Come with me, your debriefing will occur en route,” the soldier started to turn back towards the ship, but noticed that Tucker hadn’t moved yet. At least he hadn’t moved towards the ship. Instead Tucker stood in front of Church, one hand stuck out awkwardly between them. Church stared at it and Caboose stared at them. Hesitantly Church took it.

“Always hated you the least dude,” Tucker said. “Don’t get blown up again unless I’m around to tape it.”

Church made a snorting sound. “I sincerely hope to never see your ugly mug again, so sorry to disappoint.”

“Fucker.” Tucker said it with a small smile. Then he turned towards Caboose.

Caboose didn’t like Tucker. Caboose hadn’t liked Tucker in a long, long time. But when Tucker stuck out his hand Caboose took it and gave it a good shake.

“Easy Caboose, I’m gonna need that! That’s my sword hand, if you know what I mean.” Tucker paused and gave Caboose a meaningful look. The quiet got less stuck for a second and Caboose managed to get words through again.

“… Hey chicka bum bum,” Caboose said. Something clenched inside his chest and didn’t stop.

“Work on that, maybe you’ll get it right someday.”

Tucker wasn’t expecting to see Caboose again. Tucker wasn’t expecting to see Church again either. His goodbye said it clear as day and Caboose didn’t know how to feel about that. Tucker was dumb and stupid and didn’t share his sword and hogged Church all to himself but- but-!

“You’re dumb,” Caboose managed to say, “Try to be less dumb because dumb people get hurt and I do not want that to happen to you. Okay?” Caboose let go of Tucker’s hand.

“Caboose…” Tucker sounded… a little confused, a little annoyed, a little sad, and a lot something Caboose didn’t have a name for.

“Sometime today Private!” the person on the ship called out. Tucker shot them a glare. At least Caboose thought he did. The helmet made it hard to tell sometimes.

“Fine,” Tucker said, “I promise to be less stupid, just for you Caboose. You idiot.”

Tucker shifted his duffel bag’s strap, walked away, got onto the ship, and was gone. Without the ship the quiet came back even worse than before. Church and Caboose watched it go, getting smaller and smaller before blinking away into slip space. No explosion this time. The second ship came soon after. It touched down in the same spot of grass the first one did, and a different person in blue armor leaned out of the side door. This one said “Private Caboose?”

Caboose froze. He coughed, tried to unstick the quiet and gave a salute. Church muttered “Wrong hand,” so Caboose switched hands really quick.

The person in the ship jerked their thumb and indicated the open door. “Get in.”

Caboose took a deep breath and then turned to Church. In his hand he held two little pink pills, and presented them. Church looked really confused.

“I took these when I was a kid and got all sneezy in the spring, they helped with allergies. If you take these, could I please get a good bye hug?”

“What.”

“You told me a while ago you were allergic and that hugs would make you sick so when I found these looking for Tucker in the cabinets I thought maybe-“

“I get it, please shut up! Caboose, I’m a ghost in a robot. I can’t take pills.”

“Oh.”

Church looked at Caboose for a while, made a frustrated noise, scratched his head, and then snatched the pills.

“Fuck it, this’ll be enough for a quick one. You get five seconds.”

“But you just said-”

“I’ll smash em up and eat the ghosts or whatever, fuck you want the hug or not?!”

Caboose grabbed onto Church without another word. He pulled Church in close and tight because Caboose worried that he might never see Church again, that this would be it. If this was it, Caboose needed to say something, something important, something Church might never hear from another person as long as he not-lived.

“I’m sorry that Tex blew up, Church.”

Church went stiff. Caboose let go.

“Bye,” Caboose said. Church didn’t say anything.

Caboose got on the ship, put down his duffel bag, buckled into his seat, and sobbed. He didn’t stop until they touched down in Rat’s Nest.

**Author's Note:**

> Technically Benadryl comes in tablets, but I don’t think anyone really cares about that. 
> 
> Thanks to eggstasy for encouraging me to post this here!


End file.
